How to configure for side-by-side checkouts and an environment variable?

[fuhrmanator]

Hello,

I'm using a side-by-side check-out (where the second repo is a tool I run in my CI).

I want to deploy a folder that's in only one of the repos, e.g. main/$SOURCE_ROOT, but I can't get it to work.

I set the folder: to be just . as a basic trial, and I get an error that seems to imply the action is totally confused about the path.

Here's a real example: https://github.com/fuhrmanator/Head-First-Design-Patterns/runs/7502602445?check_suite_focus=true

/usr/bin/git config --global --add safe.directory /home/runner/work/Head-First-Design-Patterns/Head-First-Design-Patterns

Head-First-Design-Patterns is being repeated. The true path is main/Head-First-Design-Patterns (because of how I installed it with checkout's side-by-side).

Passing in environment variables to folder: , e.g., $GITHUB_WORKSPACE/main/$SOURCE_ROOT doesn't seem to work. They aren't substituted (the error says something like $GITHUB_WORKSPACE/main/$SOURCE_ROOT does not exist.

My apologies if this is something obvious - I'm new to Actions.

---

ETA:

Getting closer. According to the doc adding a ~ to the end will make it an absolute path. So, I tried:

      - name: Deploy
        uses: JamesIves/github-pages-deploy-action@v4
        with:
          folder: ${{ github.repository }}/main/${{ env.SOURCE_ROOT}}/~

The error is still in the folder path:

Error: The directory you're trying to deploy named /home/runner/work/Head-First-Design-Patterns/Head-First-Design-Patterns/main/src/~ doesn't exist. Please double check the path and any prerequisite build scripts and try again. ❗

If I remove the ~, the action is confused because it doesn't think it's a git repo:

      - name: Deploy
        uses: JamesIves/github-pages-deploy-action@v4
        with:
          folder: ${{ github.workspace }}/main/$${{ env.SOURCE_ROOT }}

Checking configuration and starting deployment… 🚦
Deploying using Deploy Token… 🔑
Configuring git…
/usr/bin/git config --global --add safe.directory /home/runner/work/Head-First-Design-Patterns/Head-First-Design-Patterns
/usr/bin/git config user.name fuhrmanator
fatal: not in a git directory
Error: There was an error initializing the repository: The process '/usr/bin/git' failed with exit code 128 ❌
Notice: Deployment failed! ❌

It seems the action doesn't like the idea of side-by-side repos.